WASHINGTON — Seven Saudis concerned within the killing of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi belonged to an elite unit charged with defending Crown Pri
WASHINGTON — Seven Saudis concerned within the killing of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi belonged to an elite unit charged with defending Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, in accordance with a declassified report on the assassination launched on Friday. The New York Instances has linked the group to a brutal marketing campaign to crush dissent inside the dominion and overseas, citing interviews with American officers who’ve learn categorized intelligence experiences in regards to the marketing campaign.
The position of operatives from the so-called Speedy Intervention Drive, or R.I.F., within the Khashoggi killing helped bolster the American intelligence case that Prince Mohammed accredited the operation. “Members of the R.I.F. wouldn’t have participated” within the killing with out the crown prince’s consent, in accordance with the report.
The group “exists to defend the crown prince” and “solutions solely to him” the report mentioned, and on Friday, the Treasury Division designated the Speedy Intervention Drive for financial sanctions for its position within the Khashoggi killing.
Right here is a few of what’s recognized in regards to the unit:
Operations
The killing of Mr. Khashoggi was however one notably egregious operation involving members of the group. The Speedy Intervention Drive seems to have begun its violent marketing campaign in 2017, the yr when Prince Mohammed pushed apart his older rival to develop into inheritor to the Saudi throne.
In keeping with American officers, the group has carried out dozens of operations each inside the dominion and past — together with forcibly repatriating Saudis from different Arab international locations. The group additionally seems to have been concerned within the detention and abuse of outstanding girls’s rights activists who had campaigned for lifting the dominion’s ban on girls driving. One in all them, Loujain al-Hathloul, was imprisoned in 2018 and launched solely this month.
One other of the ladies detained by the group, a college lecturer, tried to kill herself in 2018 after being subjected to psychological torture, in accordance with American officers. A few of the detainees have been held briefly inside an opulent palace belonging to Prince Mohammed and his father, King Salman.
The group was so busy that, in June 2018, its discipline commander requested an adviser to Prince Mohammed whether or not the Speedy Intervention Drive may get bonuses for Eid al-Fitr, the vacation marking the top of the holy month of Ramadan, in accordance with American officers who’ve learn an intelligence report that mentions the request.
Management and Operatives
The group was overseen by Saud al-Qahtani, one of many crown prince’s prime aides who served as a media czar for the Royal Courtroom. One in all Mr. al-Qahtani’s roles was to handle the dominion’s “troll farms” — organizations that used legions of on-line bots and avatars to smother the voices of outstanding critics like Mr. Khashoggi. The intelligence report launched on Friday made reference to a 2018 quote from Mr. al-Qahtani that he “didn’t make selections with out the crown prince’s approval.”
American officers mentioned the sphere commander for the Speedy Intervention Drive was Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb, an intelligence officer who typically traveled abroad with Prince Mohammed. One other operative on the group, Thaar Ghaleb al-Harbi, was a member of the Saudi Royal Guard who in 2017 was promoted for acts of valor throughout an assault on certainly one of Prince Mohammed’s palaces.
The declassified report on Friday named all three males as a part of a bunch of 21 individuals who “participated in, ordered or have been in any other case complicit in or accountable for the dying of Jamal Khashoggi” on behalf of the crown prince.
The Trial
The Saudi authorities has lengthy denied that Prince Mohammed had any position in Mr. Khashoggi’s killing, and it put eight males on trial for it. The federal government by no means launched the names of the accused.
In September, a Saudi court docket introduced that 5 of the boys had been sentenced to 20 years in jail, and three others acquired lesser sentences. A few of the defendants had initially acquired dying sentences, however these sentences have been lifted after certainly one of Mr. Khashoggi’s sons mentioned publicly that he and his siblings had pardoned the boys who killed their father.
It was unclear whether or not any members of the Speedy Intervention Drive have been placed on trial or sentenced, however Mr. al-Qahtani was publicly exonerated by the Saudi authorities as a result of prosecutors mentioned there was inadequate proof to strive him in Mr. Khashoggi’s killing.